Thursday, May 6, 2010

Taking Care

Building into our lives rhythms of self-care is not only smart, it is also godly. One of the first ideas introduced in the Bible is that of work and rest. We need to give intentional energy to becoming good at both of them. Either one (work or rest) neglected in our lives will result in personal disaster and will cause us to be less helpful and more harmful to others. I am concerned that our society in general tends to engage in activities that do not replenish us in our "down time" ("down time" is time when we are not working). Many times when we are exhausted from work we engage in 'escapist' activates such as TV, internet, addictions, etc. that provide us relief from our exhaustion but do not replenish us. This causes us to live empty and tired lives and hinders our ability to be effective workers.

Why is it that people are so tired, burnt out, stressed out, pressured and anxious? Maybe it has less to do with being over-worked and more to do with being under-rested.